In 2008, Apocalypse was ranked #3 at Marvel.com on their list of Top 10 X-Men villains over the past four decades. In 2009, Apocalypse was ranked as IGN's 24th Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time.

The writer of the first five issues of X-Factor, Bob Layton, intended to use the Daredevil villain Owl as "the master" of the Alliance of Evil, mentioned in X-Factor #4 (vol. 1, May 1986). When Layton however was removed from the book and replaced with Louise Simonson, she requested that the last page of X-Factor #5 be changed to a shadowy character named Apocalypse, as Simonson wanted a new character to be the main villain for the book. Apocalypse was the principal adversary of X-Factor, until being apparently killed at the climax of issue #68 (July 1991). The character returns in X-Men #14 (vol. 2, November 1992), part of the X-Cutioner's Songcrossover; though, the character is again, apparently killed off at the end of this crossover, in X-Force #18 (vol. 1, January 1993).